Kate Belew: Word Witch

Megan Hamilton (00:02.329)
I'm Megan Hamilton and this is the Embracing Enchantment podcast. Today's guest is an author, poet, and a witch. I came to know of her through a program we were both taking and then soon realized that she was part of a subscription and newsletter that I belonged to called Tamed Wild. She has an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and is an initiated green witch. Her recently published book Word Witch

how to call upon and cultivate the creative magic within you has just been released, please welcome the magical Kate Blue. Hi, Kate.

Kate Belew (00:41.378)
Hi, Megan. Hi, listeners. Thanks so much for having me.

Megan Hamilton (00:43.473)
I'm so happy that you're here and congratulations on your beautiful, beautiful book.

Kate Belew (00:51.726)
Thank you so much.

Megan Hamilton (00:53.027)
You're welcome. One of the things that I really loved is in your introduction and in your, you know, like, what's that called when you're like celebrating your book, you're sending it to people. The book is for what's that called at the beginning?

Kate Belew (01:17.09)
like the dedication or the introduction forward? I'm like, which one?

Megan Hamilton (01:18.285)
Yeah, thank you. A dedication.

The dedication you wrote to my younger self in the fairy garden longing to write books and move to New York City This is for you and it actually brought a tear to my eye because it's so lovely And I wonder if you could talk a little bit. I'm gonna be shuffling cards and I'll pull a card in a sec you talk a little bit to your journey of being that kid and then now it's actually happened

Kate Belew (01:52.61)
Yeah, I mean, I think in some ways like time is always happening all at once, you know, like I think that that younger self was very wise and knew what she wanted for our life. And so I think that I feel very grateful to be living into the vision that she had. And so much of that has been through looking backwards to things that she already knew in that fairy garden. But and that landscape of childhood.

Megan Hamilton (01:58.033)
Mm-hmm.

Kate Belew (02:21.048)
of poetry, of the creativity that was given to me by parents and teachers have been all the steps on the path to this book being born. And so in a way, it feels like all part of the spiral. And I couldn't have done it without her very present in the process. And so I feel very grateful to still be connected to that younger self.

Megan Hamilton (02:45.776)
Hmm, I really like that. It just speaks to honoring, oops, okay, I guess that's what the card is. It speaks to honoring all the parts of you and like specifically letting her come during the process, knowing that she was kind of the one who initiated it in the first place.

Kate Belew (02:49.454)
Thanks.

Kate Belew (02:57.934)
you

Kate Belew (03:12.482)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Megan Hamilton (03:14.0)
So nice. Okay. I did kind of explain to Kate before I got on this podcast that I'm feeling a bit chaotic today and so the card is somewhere on the floor. But of course it is not readily available to see.

Kate Belew (03:26.518)
I love it.

Kate Belew (03:35.572)
This feels magical in a strange way.

Megan Hamilton (03:38.385)
So this is not unusual. One time right before reading, I dropped cards. So I live in a really old house and the floorboards in my office are kind of, they don't always join at the same places. And so I lost three cards right before reading down into the floor. And so I had to like,

Kate Belew (03:42.582)
Yeah.

Kate Belew (03:49.614)
Mm.

Kate Belew (03:56.128)
Ooh.

Megan Hamilton (04:08.08)
MacGyver it with like a pencil and some chewing gum and like stick it down to pull them up. And it was like, I'm not it was like death and the tower and like possibly the devil. Like it was bananas. But I got them like seconds before reading. And then the other day, I was I do my tarot practice every day. I put my cards away as I do.

Kate Belew (04:27.063)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (04:38.096)
close up shop at the end of the day, open the door to come in the next day to start my day, and there was three cards underneath my chair.

Kate Belew (04:49.538)
Hmm.

Megan Hamilton (04:50.626)
And like, I keep a giant selenite crystal on top of my cards when I'm not using them. So I don't know what, here we go. I don't know what happened there that day, but it's not unusual to get like things to sort of happen. Okay. Yeah, exactly. needs a bit of attention. So here we have the 10 of cups, which is interesting because I pulled this for,

Kate Belew (05:02.126)
you

Kate Belew (05:10.222)
The spirit of the house wanted in.

Megan Hamilton (05:20.304)
client earlier today. And traditionally, we love this card. I mean, it looks like a happy card. We associate cups a lot of the time with love, right? And the relates back to the element of water. And something that's interesting, and so tens are also a completion. But one thing I've been leaning into lately is this idea of some of these cards being stage cards. So

you know, it looks like they're on a stage and what's happening is a backdrop. We know that Pamela Coleman Smith, who is the creator of these cards, was very into theater and did all kinds of really neat stuff like shadow theater and sets. I was very heavily involved in that world. And so one of the things we can look at with this card is we know what we are encultured to believe is

a good life or a happy life. But what would your backdrop be? So if, you know, if the world is a stage, which is kind of cheesy to say, what does it look like? What are you celebrating? Because this backdrop can be interchanged based on however you want to live your life. And so at the same time, it's asking you, what do you want your life to look like? What brings you joy?

Kate Belew (06:28.302)
Mm.

Megan Hamilton (06:45.144)
It's also suggesting to you that you don't necessarily have to have this one that we for the most part have been brought up to believe is the sort of quintessential good life. Yeah. Does that speak to you at all, Kate?

Kate Belew (07:04.138)
It does. I mean, looking at the imagery too, are we meant to read them as happening at the same time or are they younger selves next to older selves? Because that seems kind of potent to what we were speaking about, just because of the same color of dress that's mirrored in the two and the sort of like ritual of play that then turns into this sort of like moment of

Megan Hamilton (07:14.608)
I

Kate Belew (07:29.166)
fulfillment or completion. just it seems like a beautiful acceptance of that sort of time happening all at once, you know.

Megan Hamilton (07:36.665)
I absolutely love, that take. And it's one of my favorite things about Tarot. And I've talked about this, on the podcast before, which is, I think part of the reason I enjoy it so much is because I'm all, there's always a new, a fresh perspective. There's always a new take. There's always some small detail that I haven't noticed before. And like, this is, I keep

making up the number, but it's somewhere around 25 years that I've been reading cards. And I just love that you can always find something new to look at. Actually, that reminds me, how long have you been with Tamed Wild?

Kate Belew (08:21.514)
I began working with Shelby in late summer of 2020.

Megan Hamilton (08:28.208)
Okay, so you are probably familiar with this little magic bag covered in cat hair, sorry. I know, I was introduced to Tame Wild because my friend Erica got me a subscription box as a thank you. Yeah, I know. So it's neat that you're here because like, I know our paths haven't really crossed but.

Kate Belew (08:35.31)
Yes, I am. I love it. Yes. Yes.

Kate Belew (08:46.222)
home.

Megan Hamilton (08:56.282)
There's been like all of these interesting intersections and tamed wild is such a, it's such a beautiful, like wonderful space. There's so many things happening with it. How did it, how did you get involved?

Kate Belew (09:09.986)
Yeah.

Kate Belew (09:15.008)
So the company was created by Shelby Bundy. People might know her by the moon in Carolina online. She started with an in-person apothecary in California. And I want to say in about 2016, I'm sorry, Shelby, if that date isn't right. So it started with an in-person space, which is how Kristin Lizenby met Shelby through working in that space before Kristin moved to the Azores.

So then at a certain point, Kristin, right before 2020 moved to the Azores to tend to a family homestead there, which is where she still lives. And then Shelby ended up moving to Hendersonville, North Carolina, and then Tamed Wild became an online space. And somewhere in the midst of all of this, I was working in New York. I was getting my master's degree. I connected, I was doing work for an apothecary here on the Lower East Side.

and we carried some of Shelby's decks. And so I got in touch with Shelby about doing some writing, who then connected me to Kristen, who was doing writing for Tamed Wild, Living in the Azores, and Kristen and I became friends. And so then we just, through love of witchcraft, stayed in touch until I went freelance full-time. And Kristen was like, you know, I've been talking to my friend Shelby about doing this podcast for Tamed Wild.

I'd love to have a co-host, is this something you might be interested in? And so I was kind of invited along on that journey and then I started supporting Shelby doing content marketing and social media, helping with the blog. And ever since then now there's an online education community space. So I teach in there, there's retreats. It's really been this beautiful platform for education and community and then just the development of fun.

accessible ritual tools. And so I'm just so grateful for both Kristin and Shelby and all of the people that I've met through this space because it's been such a hub and a circle for magical happenings.

Megan Hamilton (11:23.032)
It's so cool. I love hearing that story. And I have learned so much from the newsletter. mean, there's beautiful, whether it's, you know, mythology or ritual or, you know, all kinds of different angles and aspects to magic. What a beautiful and wonderful

Kate Belew (11:32.174)
Mm.

Megan Hamilton (11:51.973)
group to be part of and get to work in and practice in.

Kate Belew (11:56.633)
Yeah, we've now, Kristen and I have now recorded as of this morning, 168 episodes together. And so we were reflecting, we're like, wow, like that's just the amount of conversations we've been able to have and just learning together for all of these years, you know, and just in that microcosm of the Tamed Wild world and universe. But yeah, I am very, very grateful to be a part of it.

Megan Hamilton (12:24.214)
Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. And I'm sure they are grateful, grateful to have you as well. One of the one of the things and this is early on in your in your like I said, gorgeous book. You say and I think this is so important. There is no one way to be a witch.

Megan Hamilton (12:51.574)
Certainly for me, my gravitation towards magic and magical practices and learning about different modalities of spirituality is the fact that there is an open space for people to be creative, for people to be true to themselves and to gather different pieces that speak to them. When you say this in

your book, can you talk a little bit about why you say it and what you mean in the context of Word Witch?

Kate Belew (13:32.099)
Yeah, I think in the work that I've done, one of the prevailing themes that I've seen people come to me with is like, I feel this way, but I'm not this, or but I'm not this. And so I thought it was so important to talk about this because I always want to be encouraging of people to embrace the things that they feel in their life. And I think that there's very few things that we get to really.

for ourselves in this world and so and the power of that like the power of naming ourselves for what we are what we feel or you know how we want to move through the world I mean working with archetypes like that I think can be hugely important and so I always want to just push people a little bit towards towards freedom in that way to be like yes I am this way I feel this way I want to be a part of this and you know we I mean all of us we come from such different

lives and backgrounds and ancestry and teachings and, you know, intentions and wants and dreams and desires. And I think, you know, making things prescriptive or dogmatic can kind of detract from that instead of all of us kind of meeting around that hearth and being like, look how different we are, but in us all being different and unique and magical, we really are the same in that way. And so it's like an, it's an invitation. I wanted to.

reach a hand across the page and be like, let's go, you know? And that was really important to me.

Megan Hamilton (15:05.828)
Yes, and I love that it's at the beginning as well because there are, you know, if you're somebody who's starting to get interested in, you know, let's say you're like, Taro, I've seen a lot about that. I'm curious about that. And straight off the hop, you find somebody who is like, this is how it must be practiced. You must be given a deck or, you know, it has to be wrapped in silk and all of the different ways that.

that practice is sort of talked about, then it might feel...

Kate Belew (15:37.518)
Hmm.

Megan Hamilton (15:42.257)
sort of like chokey like it in the same way that you might reject religion specifically because of the dogma attached to it or the very prescriptive ways that you were just talking about. so it's setting that tone right from the beginning, which is, you you get to you get to be how you are as you move through the abundance of ceremony and ritual and practices that you talk about in the book.

then it does give that sense of freedom straight away. And I love that that was an intentional way of opening up, I guess, the circle.

Kate Belew (16:24.056)
Thank you. Yeah, and I guess too, like, I didn't want to force the word witch upon anyone that didn't feel like it was for them for a variety of reasons too, so it goes kind of both ways. It's like, well, maybe it's like a possibility for later, or maybe this word isn't for me, but then why is it not for me? And so getting curious about that I think can be a really potent place to begin something too. It's like, what am I drawn to? What...

do I know, what do I reject in that way? And then what do I, by saying no to something too, I'm also saying yes to something else. So like, what does that mean for me as, you know, someone that is inherently creative in the world because everyone is creative and that's sort of the thesis of things. But, yeah.

Megan Hamilton (17:08.196)
Well, and that actually drives me to my next quote, which is, you know, you, you put forth a spell and it's like one, everyone is creative to everything is connected and three, writing is magic. And what that does as well is

Kate Belew (17:11.223)
Yeah

Megan Hamilton (17:31.983)
We've all met people who really struggle seeing themselves as creative beings, right? They're like, well, you know, I don't know how to draw or, and I'll play music or, know, they think of like, there, there's this kind of like set of things that are creative and everything else is not creative. And again, you're allowing, you know, very specifically through your words, which is kind of meta in the whole thing, but

Kate Belew (17:37.72)
Mm-hmm.

Kate Belew (17:58.287)
Yes.

Megan Hamilton (17:59.917)
allowing everybody to see themselves within the structure of the book and all the different activities that you can do. it's this kind of gentle allowance that gives people the opportunity possibly to see themselves in a different way, right?

Kate Belew (18:25.556)
Mmm. Wait, say more about that.

Megan Hamilton (18:28.976)
Well, so if you didn't see yourself as a creative person, but you were really curious about the book and the different, you know, opportunities that you put forth of different things you could try, you might say, well, I'm not going to do the writing part because like you might be interested, let's say in the rituals or the spells and you might not do the writing part because you're like, I'm not really a creative person. But here it's like,

Kate Belew (18:56.151)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (18:58.008)
Everyone is creative. So now you get to see, well, what happens? What happens if I, for now, if I look at myself as a creative person, if I look at myself as a writer, what do I make as a writer? Which again, it's like, it's a portal that maybe hadn't been opened before. And I think it speaks to your intentionality around the book of helping create the, you know, the.

Kate Belew (18:59.95)
Yeah.

Megan Hamilton (19:24.848)
virtual altar of being able to put yourself there.

Kate Belew (19:29.23)
Yeah, it's so it's always interesting to me when people don't see themselves as creative I was recently telling this story and then I actually reconnected with the friend around it that had told me this but she was working as a studying as a forensic chemist and she was trying to argue with me that she wasn't creative and I just remember this very funny argument with her not argument but like discussion where I was like Your friends at chem that is so creepy that that's so creative, but she was like, you know, I don't write poems like you and I'm like, well

Megan Hamilton (19:54.084)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kate Belew (19:58.851)
I mean, chemistry creative, like our planet is creative, cooking a meal is creative, people that do all sorts of work, it's so creative. so it's been, just always interesting to me. And that's why I wanted to put it in there because I was like, okay, everybody, we have to get out of our own way a little bit.

Megan Hamilton (20:16.602)
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Something I deeply love about your book is that it frames word witching around intentionality. So with lots of specifics and practices to try, you talk about altars in the four directions while giving lots of rituals like cord cutting ceremony and casting as well as journal prompts. There's so much actionable stuff.

And the whole process is steeped in ceremony. And so thinking about ceremony and intentionality, when you were coming up with the idea for your book and thinking about the practices that you wanted to talk about, how prevalent was the idea of intentionality in your creation process?

Kate Belew (21:13.196)
Yeah, I, it... I'm like, how do I want to say that?

Megan Hamilton (21:18.544)
Because I mean, like, magic in of itself is intentionality, that's the behind it. But you're giving vessels to practice that within.

Kate Belew (21:34.371)
Yeah, well I feel like, I mean in the spirit of getting out of our own way, like ceremony and ritual is a way to kind of get past that I think because it makes us so present that we can just be with whatever is and if, you know, I know that, you know, sometimes it's not easy to get into that space even but once we're there, we're doing something, it's, it kind of transcends that. But I, well I was working with my editor on just kind of like the structure of the book.

And we were thinking about like the ways to invite people through it. And I was trying to get to a place where I really wanted people to see the change in their world and then to feel the change in themselves. And that's how we kind of came to the altar space because I was like, if we are adding things as we move, we can see a physical representation of that which we have learned or changed. It's like, if I put a bowl of water next to a candle, suddenly like my

my worldview has changed in a way, even if it's just the worldview of your desk. And then you can feel, I mean, it's an as above, so below sort of thing. It's, you you think the subtle changes as we associate new things with those sort of correspondences kind of makes real the magic in the world. And so I think when we're trying to get someone, you know, to believe that they're creative or believe that they're a writer or believe that they can make something as something as simple as putting a thing on a foundation.

or making a commitment to ourselves can change everything. And so I think that that was sort of the intention that I was trying to carve out was by being like, okay, like look or feel or see the difference by like bringing it through the body in this way, especially because writing can be so in the head. And I think that that's where I see people really get caught up in it because it's like, you can just make the first mark. You can just write the sentence. The sentence can be silly.

It can be anything, it just matters that you do it. And so I think that that sort of structure and intention and altar building was part of supporting that.

Megan Hamilton (23:40.145)
Mm hmm. Yeah. In my public speaking work. So in my other life, I'm also a speaking coach. One of the things we talk a lot about is the intention because that for whatever reason and perhaps it's just a sign of the times we forget that like it's important to set intentions for ourselves for any thing that we're doing not only just, you know,

Kate Belew (23:51.018)
Mm.

Megan Hamilton (24:09.048)
like for goals or whatever, but also just to get ourselves centered and focused on why we're there. Cause it's so easy to not be intentional and to not be connected even to your own desires or to your next week. And so even just putting that in practice as its own goal, right? Which is just to be present and intentional.

Kate Belew (24:27.33)
Yeah.

Kate Belew (24:37.614)
Mm.

Megan Hamilton (24:38.592)
means that you've got meaning towards why you're doing what you're doing. And so in this case, you know, physically creating an altar that you're intentionally putting pieces on to help connect you and as you say, help embody the magic that you're working to create with creativity. Like, you know, just to dumb it down a bit, it just means you're going to do it more because

like it's there in front of you. You've done a thing around it. It's set it in your brain, which is very different than just scrolling through your phone for two hours and being like, whoops.

Kate Belew (25:05.454)
Thank

Kate Belew (25:19.128)
Yeah, yeah, and part of the inspiration for this kind of came from when I was at Sarah Lawrence, I was in a writing workshop with Aracely Scourmay, who's an amazing poet, and she had us create these sort of like different interactive poetry projects. And so what I did was I deconstructed an altar in my home that I built and I brought it to Sarah Lawrence and I gave everyone an item in the class. So it's like.

Megan Hamilton (25:35.77)
Hmm.

Kate Belew (25:45.101)
Someone got a deer skull, someone got a candle, someone got a selenite tower, someone got a cedar or a seashell or all these things. And with them, I gave them a line of a poem. And then I was encouraging everybody to write a line in conversation with that poem. And what we did was we sat in a circle and then I had everybody read the line that they received and then read the line that they answered with and then take both.

and put them up on the altar that we had built on the windowsill. And so by the time, know, we had done this, everybody, it was like a 24 line poem. We'd created an altar on the page that I could clearly see when I stitched the poem together. But then we'd also created the altar in the windowsill of the room. And that sort of symbolic action, that sort of ritual of movement, when everybody bought into it too, I was like, okay, this is how we all make magic together.

Megan Hamilton (26:42.212)
Mm-hmm.

Kate Belew (26:42.496)
And I was so inspired to see how we could write together, too. Because I think we think of writing as this solo activity, but I was like, look what happens if I give a friend a line, and then they give me a line back. And then suddenly we've made something new that we wouldn't have created had we not been in dialogue with each other.

Megan Hamilton (27:00.664)
my gosh, I love this so much. It reminds me of this. I did a deep dive into haiku and ancient Japanese poetry for an art project a long time ago. And I learned about, you know, where haiku comes from. And it's actually from this game called haiku that priests and young young people studying to be priests.

Kate Belew (27:09.507)
Mmm.

Megan Hamilton (27:28.4)
played and so they had there's like a structure around it. think it was like a 14 line poem and they'd start with the opening line and then you'd fold up the paper and pass it to the next person and then they'd have to do the next line and whoever's turn it was like understood what their line was within the structure and we know like haiku has lots of different markers like it there has to be a season or you know, there's a like a

different beats to different lines and then they'd end up with this you know like poem that very similar to what you created which was this co-created

piece and it was just like a game that they played.

Kate Belew (28:16.59)
It sounds like those surrealist party games to like exquisite corpse if you've ever heard of that, but...

Megan Hamilton (28:21.518)
No, I don't know anything about that.

Kate Belew (28:23.832)
As a part of the surrealist movement, the Andre Breton kind of world of things, which is kind how we get automatic writing, which I released a form of it. He didn't invent it. But there's a collection of surrealist party games. And in it is the Exquisite Corpse, which is a kind of similar pass-along poem that works really fun at a party. And you can do it with drawing too, which is really amazing.

Megan Hamilton (28:50.508)
Now I just want to do that at the next party that I'm at. I'm just like, here's the thing, like, write instructions for each line and then just pass it on. actually that's a great idea. I really want to do that now. Okay.

Kate Belew (28:53.784)
Hahaha

Kate Belew (29:04.6)
Yes. That's always me at the dinner party. I'm like, okay guys, what is everyone wishing for? Favorite thing about the last year and now what's the favorite thing about next year for your birthday? That's definitely always me.

Megan Hamilton (29:09.488)
Yeah.

Megan Hamilton (29:15.288)
Yeah, know me too. I'm like, here's my here's the pieces of paper everybody gather round and grab a pen. Okay. Yeah, yeah, I know I love it. Earlier in this podcast, we had herbalist Camille Freeman speaking to the power of herbs and herbal magic. And you are an initiated green witch. And also so at the time of the book, you're an apprentice and are you still working as an apprentice?

Kate Belew (29:21.646)
Write your wish on the bailey if I'll burn it.

Kate Belew (29:44.759)
I'm an apprentice in Robin Rose Bennett's clinic now. So I completed the apprenticeship, the three-year apprenticeship. And then after that, you can continue on working as an apprentice in her clinic. And so I've now done that for almost finished my second year, and I can do one more year. So I'll be done next year. But yeah.

Megan Hamilton (30:06.213)
And then, I mean, do you plan to open your own practice? What are your plans?

Kate Belew (30:10.784)
I don't. I just wanted to learn, honestly, just as much as I could from Robin Rose Bennett, who I just think is an incredible teacher and mentor and herbalist and writer and author. And the opportunity to, you know, just sit with first going to her house monthly and having a community of, you know, 11, 12 other women in the program to be with was like so important to my life.

And then after that, just learning to see how Robin works to act as a guide to people's healing. It's just so informative in so many different ways. And the plants will always be, you know, close to my heart. I love working with plants so much, but yeah, no plans in the now to work as a clinical herbalist, but I do just love, I love Robin's work and I love.

I love my plant allies.

Megan Hamilton (31:11.057)
Um, have you, do you, have you tapped into the telepathy tapes that podcast?

Kate Belew (31:17.09)
You know, you're the third person to recommend it to me, so it sounds like I must turn that on this afternoon.

Megan Hamilton (31:24.635)
So, I mean, as with all things, there's lots of different things to consider. And I was absolutely like, could not stop listening to it with the first season. And then a couple of things happened that I was like, something just started to feel a little bit.

Kate Belew (31:32.078)
Mm.

Megan Hamilton (31:52.73)
just maybe like wasn't really sure about it. But then season two just came out. And the reason I brought this up is because one of the episodes and maybe this is why people are asking you about it specifically too is because one of the episodes is about people who speak to plants and like share language. And it is like it is unbelievably amazing.

Kate Belew (32:09.53)
wow.

Megan Hamilton (32:22.639)
So even like just as a starting place for that. And if you're listening to the podcast here today as well, thinking about what Kate just talked about with her love of plants and what we learned about with Camille, you might find this episode really fascinating too. Actually that reminds me too, had when we had Hannah, the suburban witch, and she talked about how she talks to her plants. She uses a pendulum and like,

Kate Belew (32:51.179)
Megan Hamilton (32:52.281)
make sure that they like where they are, they like, do they need more water? Do they want to be in a different place in the room? And I this. I mean, I have, I love this idea that, you know, we can connect to plants on even more of a deep level than just, you know, like going in the back and clipping your Melissa for the day and doing whatever you're going to be doing.

Kate Belew (33:20.301)
Yeah.

Megan Hamilton (33:20.761)
And most people find that the more you spend time with plants, all plants, the more, I mean, there's so much research about the benefits of being out in nature and all of the different exchanges that are happening. But the language of plants is what keeps coming up and it's so fascinating. Like they've been studying mushrooms.

and they have clocked, I think it's like 50 words, like in mushroom language. It's soap and it's like, it just kind of also makes you rethink everything too. And goes back to intentionality, right?

Kate Belew (33:56.876)
amazing.

Kate Belew (34:06.018)
Totally.

Yeah, I mean, I've definitely, I use poetry, I use writing to connect with them and to give them voice. I was thinking about, do you know The Wild Iris by Louise Glek, the poet? There's this fabulous collection of poems called The Wild Iris and there is the title poem. But she basically kind of channels the voices of these different beings, so to speak. But there's this line in The Wild,

Megan Hamilton (34:15.505)
Hmm.

Megan Hamilton (34:20.209)
I don't think so.

Kate Belew (34:37.898)
and it says everything returns from, it's something like everything returns from oblivion again to find a voice. And it's just like, yeah, incredible. But I had this wonderful poetry teacher named Diane Seuss at Kalamazoo College and together we did a fellowship at the Pierce-Seder Creek Institute. So they gave me a writing fellowship for the summer where I could kind of just like follow around scientific researchers who are doing a variety of projects. So like,

thermoregulation of dragonflies, for example, or preservation of the Massasaga rattlesnake. And I would go with my notebook out into the swamp and go catch snakes with snake tongs and put them into a pillowcase and a bucket so that they could go mark their tails and like watch the whole process. And I was kind of like, you know, I'm the, I'm the writer. Like I don't have, I don't want to touch the rattlesnakes. And then they were like, no, we need all the hands we can get. So I was like, I guess I'm rattlesnakes today. And so.

But like spending that time out there and then what I would do is I would go like listen in a different way with the page to try to channel the voice that I had heard through again, inspired by Louise's work and created this collection of poetry called Voicing the Natural. And I think that was kind of like one of the first conscious or intentional experiences that I had had with that sort of listening to plants, like channeling through lady slipper or talking to

you know, Cleavers or Artemisia vulgaris. And then I realized later that it had been something that I was always doing because I talk about this in the book, but there's a poem about an oak tree that falls. And it's like my first conscious memory I have of writing a poem, but my grandparents lived in a space called Oak Hill and one of these oaks fell one night. And I mean, it was massive. And as like, you know, I think it was in 2001.

and I went to go see it and I felt like I had heard this voice, right? Like it was like about the oak tree and I ran home and I wrote out this poem and it's kind of the first like record I have of being like, okay, like there's a connection here, there's a listening here. so it's, yeah, been very formative.

Megan Hamilton (36:50.639)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (36:58.543)
Sometimes I really think a lot about what we probably knew. And then spend most of our lives then trying to get back to you. Do you know Amy Miranda's book, What We've Forgotten? Okay, you might like that book. Okay, so.

Kate Belew (37:04.91)
Thank

Kate Belew (37:11.704)
Mm-hmm.

Kate Belew (37:16.099)
No.

Megan Hamilton (37:23.801)
In this podcast, we aim to show lots of different modalities of spirituality with the main guiding light being to help people discover rituals and initiations that helped give them meaning and purpose in order to stay hopeful. And the reason for that is because we know that hopefulness is a necessary ingredient towards change. And so to that end, and you know, with all of this happening,

Kate Belew (37:39.598)
Mm.

Megan Hamilton (37:53.371)
Can you speak to some of the ways that you stay hopeful right now?

Kate Belew (37:58.594)
Mmm.

Megan Hamilton (38:00.39)
And it's okay if you don't feel hopeful, because I always, it's like, we're not looking for, you know, not looking for like rosy answers necessarily. You can say however you feel is what I mean to say.

Kate Belew (38:16.462)
I do feel hopeful. I feel hopeful because I feel like it's amazing that we exist at all. you know, I was just, you know, that oak tree outside is beautiful. Like the fact that there's pumpkins growing in this weird patch outside of my house in Brooklyn because someone smashed a pumpkin there last year, like beautiful. Like my dog just lives in my apartment with me because

Megan Hamilton (38:27.249)
You

Megan Hamilton (38:41.251)
Love it.

Kate Belew (38:46.432)
I adopted him for my rescue. Beautiful. Like, you and I having this conversation through the witch-wide web. Beautiful. And so I do feel hopeful because of all of those amazing things about just living on Earth, how lucky we are to live on Earth. It does make me think of my uncle who does say, hope is not a strategy.

though, I, so I do, I do also carry that with that. And, but I do think that we have lots of strategies and I think that being a witch is a strategy in the world to remain hopeful because it orients us to the magic of our planet and the magic of each other, that inherent magic of each other. And it teaches us the importance of being connected to all of these things, to honor those connections, to honor these.

Megan Hamilton (39:18.235)
Mm-hmm.

Kate Belew (39:35.598)
you know, the sacred wildness that exists, the sacred strangeness of being here, and so through that...

I think that that is how I do that, by claiming witch and writer and claiming community and coven with people who believe in the same things that I do and are open to having hard conversations or to being in the muck of the earth together.

Megan Hamilton (40:14.213)
Mm hmm. Yes, that's it. It's the muck of the earth. It's can't be like that's that's the place where all everything happens, right? It's that murky the moon, you know, can't always see sometimes just going forward with without any light just putting one foot forward and the trust that comes from that. Yeah, I

Kate Belew (40:25.707)
Mm-hmm.

Megan Hamilton (40:43.867)
That's really lovely. It is something like one of usually I have three words and this year I just had one and it was magic. And for me it was it was specifically focusing on the pentacle and the idea of the magic that everything is magic. So you know it's the same with you talking about your friend who's an engineer like chemistry is magic chemistry is

Kate Belew (40:54.083)
Mm.

Megan Hamilton (41:11.409)
creativity, you're, you know, it's, it's putting things together. The original creative, you know, vessel was alchemy and all of the, all of the ways that, you know, like we know this and you say it like everything is connected. Like we know that, but then every once in a while you get this sense of, Oh, I think this actually means something. Then this sort of like,

like conceptual thing that I thought it was, this actually means everything is connected. A choice that somebody's making in Australia right now is going to affect me in four months. That is how everything is connected. I write a book and put it out there and thousands and more people

suddenly have like a beautiful experience from that. That is how we're connected. The internet is how we're connected. all of you know. Yeah, I really like that. Thanks for thanks for bringing that forward.

Kate Belew (42:24.28)
Thanks for the question. I love that question.

Megan Hamilton (42:27.165)
it has been so nice to talk to you and I really appreciate your time and your thoughtful answers. I'm definitely going to be sharing in the show notes how people can, find your beautiful book. And, you know, I highly recommend just even subscribing to the newsletter to get started with tamed wild and start getting access to the gorgeous.

missives that everybody's putting out there. What else, what are you doing now? What are you doing now that the book's out?

Kate Belew (43:04.904)
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. This has been such a wonderful, inspiring, magical time and yeah, I just love being here, so thank you. And, what am I up to? I, well, I write on Substacks. You can find me at WordWitch Creative Magic. I send weekly articles, full moon, new moon guides, weekly prompts, all the fun things. I also have a-

weekly newsletter that goes out. I'm over on Tamed Wild, like you mentioned, and on the Magic and Alchemy podcast with Kristin Lizenby. And I guess if this isn't... in January. My yearly writing school opens for six weeks through the winter and to the end of winter, so that's the Bardo, so folks can join me there.

Megan Hamilton (44:01.019)
I love it, I love it. So lots on the go. Thanks so much, Kate. This has really been a delight.

Kate Belew (44:04.056)
Mm-hmm.

Kate Belew (44:09.71)
Thank you.

Megan Hamilton (44:11.055)
Okay, so you can find all the information and takeaways from today's episode in the show notes or at embracingenchantment.com. Please subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts, leave a review or a voice note. I really, I do actually love getting the voice notes. You can find out more about Kate and where to follow her in the show notes or at embracingenchantment.com and make sure you're subscribed because we have exciting episodes coming up and don't forget to catch up on our incredible back.

catalog with guests like Colt Mother, Pam Grossman, Patrick from My Morning Jacket, and of course, my best friend, author Jennifer Fawcett. Until then, here's to building an enchanted life.